Significance: As one of the fastest-growing counties discharging to Chesapeake Bay, Charles County faces quite a challenge in meeting the goal of Maryland's Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR) program: Altogether, the 66 wastewater treatment plants discharging to the nation's largest estuary must reduce nitrogen and phosphorous by a total of 20 million pounds and 1 million pounds annually. Joint venture partners KCI and George Miles & Buhr negotiated the first ENR grant from the state's Department of the Environment, covering 40% of the cost of converting the 15-mgd plant's activated sludge process to a four-stage Bardenpho treatment process, which requires little or no chemicals but effectively removes nitrates. As a result, the plant has exceeded its goals for nutrients reduction and, once at full capacity, it can reduce nutrient discharges to the bay by 2 million pounds annually, nearly 10% of the state's total goal.

30th Street Area Plan

Client: City of Boise, Idaho

AEC firm: HDR

Cost: $387,688

Completed: January 2008

Significance: A study in gracefully balancing public concerns with the need to accommodate growth. Boise is the state capital and the nation's 4th best city to “live, work and play”—at least according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance. As the city grows, commuters are cutting through residential streets to bypass an increasingly congested thoroughfare. But when the Ada County Highway Authority suggested that building a four-lane, 1.1-mile limited-access road would provide a safer route downtown, residents balked. After a year spent seeking input from residents, businesses, shoppers, and visitors, HDR's 25-year master plan includes the city's first proposal for mass transit. The first step would be a 1-mile streetcar line through downtown; future phases would extend the line more than two miles to 30th Street and beyond.